


Warm

by randomity



Category: Free!
Genre: Family, Friendship, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-11-17
Updated: 2013-11-17
Packaged: 2018-01-01 20:38:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,054
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1048328
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/randomity/pseuds/randomity
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In which it's now Makoto's turn to be cared for.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Warm

**Author's Note:**

  * For [cixth](https://archiveofourown.org/users/cixth/gifts).



> This fic's both on friendship and Tachibana family sweetness. I pretty much don't own Free! but I definitely love it!

Tachibana Makoto is like a mother hen generally to everyone, most people think. Whether it’s family, friends, strangers, and even with animals, he’s the type that would worry over others before thinking of his own.

 

-

 

_“Ah, that’s mine, don’t take it!” Ren cried, but Ran had victory on her side for that piece of ham for her to take. Trying to take it back seemed hopeless now._

_“Come on, stop fighting,” The eldest son of the family looked at both of them disapprovingly. With a sigh leaving upon seeing his little brother sulk, he gave in and holds out a piece of his ham. “Here, you can have some of mine.”_

_While Ren’s back to all smiles, Ran pouted at the favourable treat. “Big brother, I want some too!” Frowning a little, Makoto gave of what’s left of his portion without hesitation, “There you go.” The head of the Tachibana household could only smile at the scene before him._

 

-

 

At the school swimming pool, the four teens were currently out of the water, with one in a very dismayed and annoyed mood as he stared at the now murky pool. There was now an unusually deep crease on Makoto’s eyebrows. Rei and Nagisa were kneeling in front of him, one looking nervous while the latter kept snickering with laughter.

_In a usual day at the swim club Makoto found Rei hunched up in a front of the pool, looking as if he’s trying to think of an impossible answer to a question. Worried for his teammate, he hovered behind him to ask what was wrong._

  
_“Ah, Makoto-senpai.” Rei looked up with a troubled frown on his face. He said that he was bothered about his time, not getting any more improvements. All of a sudden, Nagisa popped from behind them with an innocent (yet sinister) look on his face, only to suggest a more ominous plan to help improve Rei’s time._

_A slimy, unknown substance. Hearing the cap of the bottle open, both Makoto and Rei shivered at the thought of what’s about to happen. The younger teen sped away from the blond in an attempt to avoid the coming doom, who in turn tried to catch him._

_The team’s captain slowly backed away from the two. “H-Hey, Nagisa, Rei, that’s enough!” The bespectacled teen ran behind his senpai, slightly cringing by the sight of Nagisa coming closer to them. “Then stop Nagisa-kun, please, Makoto-senpai!”_

_In an attempt to appease Nagisa from his plot and a ‘We’ll get you slimy too, Mako-chan!’, a scream broke out from the swim club._

_“Makoto-senpai! I-I’ll never forget you, senpai!” Rei placed a hand over his chest while looking down, not really wanting to see a slime-covered Makoto. The said teen grimaced upon hearing his kouhai, “I’m not dead yet!”_

_Suddenly, both of Nagisa’s hands were propped up on Rei’s shoulders. “Rei-chan, gotcha!” After uselessly flailing away, “Okay, slime time!” Rei was now as slimy as Makoto and could feel his own death nearing._

_Both the slime victims were now slipping all over the place. “Now both of you should have some improvement on your time!” Nagisa proclaimed out happily, clearly oblivious to the situation._

_Seeing the commotion, Haruka called out the team’s attention._

_“Oh, Haru-chan! I’ve developed a new swimsuit!” Nagisa enthusiastically presented the two struggling teens, slipping all over the place. The black-haired swimmer glared at the trio. “Don’t. You’ll contaminate the water.”_

_Regardless of Haru’s menacing warning, their slime-slicked body led them all screaming as they tumbled to the pool._

_Haruka let out a somehow annoyed sigh. “I’m surrounded by idiots.”_

 

“I’m sorry, senpai!” Rei-chan blurted out, bowing at Makoto with his knees still sitting formally and starting to ache a bit. With his arms still crossed across his chest, Makoto heaved out a sigh and looked at his teammates. “Nagisa, what you did just now wasn’t right.” Upon seeing his disappointed look, the blond had his sights on the side with a pout adorned. “Well, I was just trying to help with Rei-chan’s problem.”

The swim captain just tilted his head to the side at the sight of his underclassmen. Sighing out again, he let out a smile. “Well now, just promise me that this won’t happen again, understood?” The two beamed at Makoto and replied with a _“Yes!”_ and _“I’ll do my best not to!”_

Seeing as that somehow solved today’s problem, the brunet proceeded towards Haru’s direction. “Since we won’t get to swim any more for now, we’ll call it a day.” Everyone agreed and headed to the showers, eager to remove the unappreciated, icky feeling sticking on their skin.

Before taking a bath, Nagisa patted on Makoto’s back and had a big grin on his face. “I know you wouldn’t get mad at us for so long!” The taller male smiled at him.

“Oh, before I forget, both of you would have to clean the pool tomorrow in reflection to what you did today.” He then went towards his own shower, leaving the younger teens saying _“Don’t leave me alone with him!”, “Yay! I get to be with Rei-chan!”,_ and _“You would be leaving all the work to me!”_

Finding Makoto laughing to himself, Haruka somehow smiled at the sight of his friends.

 

-

 

In a normal school day, the tall brunet found himself sleepier than usual. The wavy letters of the literature textbook seemed to lull Makoto, beckoning him to close his eyes to sleep. He had his cold-feeling hand propped to his cheek.

“-bana.” He tried suppressing a yawn when a throbbing headache just passed by. Last night, it was the same, having random occurrence of headaches while he was playing games with his siblings. After convincing the twins to sleep, he had to doze off earlier than reading books which he usually would do before sleeping.

“Tachibana Makoto!”

“Y-yes!” he started and suddenly stood up from his seat. Said teen found majority of his classmates looking at him, slightly worried. The teacher looked straight at him, an authoritative aura emanating from him. Beside him, Haru was glaring at the adult, as if saying _“He wasn’t really doing anything wrong.”_

Slightly unsettled by his student, the teacher went back to the board work. “I’ll let you off for now.” Observing that Tachibana was typically more attentive, he didn’t have to mind much.

“Sorry, sensei.” With a bow, the teacher then gestured for him to sit before continuing his lecture. When he sat back down Makoto felt a painful sore run through his back, urging him to sit straighter to at least ease the pain. He placed his supposed focus on the board but felt another wave of headache which led him to take off his glasses and rub the bridge of his nose.

From the corner of his eyes, he could sense Haruka’s expression knitted disapprovingly.

 _“You’re not listening again”_ or _“There’s something you’re not telling me,”_ Makoto thinks what Haru was trying to say, he’s not sure. And it was definitely a rare case that Tachibana Makoto wouldn’t be able to decipher Nanase Haruka’s expressions.

He gave a small smile to his friend in an attempt to reassure him. With squinted eyes behind glass frames, Makoto resumed to write scribbles of letters which were supposedly what one would call class notes.

 

After the class, the brunet made an excuse to the black-haired male and made his escape towards the school infirmary. He was starting to have a feeling that he was getting sick so he thought he’d try asking for some medicine to his headaches.

However, when the nurse saw him, he was suddenly pushed back to a chair. “Oh dear, you’re getting pale already!” A hand shot to Makoto’s forehead which somehow swayed him aback. “And I think you’re running a fever! You should’ve stayed back home to rest.”

Oh. So that’s why he felt light-headed.

After several prescriptions and ‘nurse’s orders!’, Makoto was about to make his way back to the classroom as he opened the infirmary’s door when he saw Haru leaning on the wall opposite of the door.

“Haru-chan!” He was surprised to see him here, although not at the “Don’t add –chan to my name,” that came after. Makoto closed the door and leaned beside Haru. He was starting to feel dizzy again. The shorter male tiptoed a bit to reach his forehead to the other male’s own, which took Makoto to step back a bit. The black-haired teen stared at his friend. _“You were sick,”_ his expression told him.

The only thing that Makoto could do was to laugh lightly and muttered an “I found that out just now.”

Haru shot a surveying look at the taller male, making the latter look away while scratching the back of his neck. Heaving out a sigh, “I’ll take you home,” he said as he made his way to the classroom to pick up his and Makoto’s book bags. Makoto’s eyes widened a bit and weakly flailed his hands disapprovingly.

“You don’t have to! I’ll get there fine on my own.” Regardless, Haruka walked pass him and all he could do was to follow him back to their room.

 

Even with the protests of Amakata-sensei and Makoto, Haru hard-headedly went on to accompany him home. As they walked, the black-haired male kept hold of the other’s bag, refusing to give in to the now pouting teen. Blue eyes wandered over to the person silently trudging beside him, still looking away.

Makoto would usually be the one doing the talking more but in his condition Haru tried to think of what to say as he grew more worried. When he was about to ask the brunet, he suddenly spoke up. “Won’t you miss swimming practice if you stayed with me?”

Haru’s brows furrowed a bit as they walked down the steps. “You’re the one who’s sick and yet you’re more worried about me?” He replied with a small laugh. “I can’t help it, Haru-chan.”

Before Makoto could even pick out his keys to the house, the front door opened. “Makoto dear, I heard that you were sick!” His mother held on to her son’s arms, checking on his complexion and feeling up his temperature. He was about to question how his mother knew before he recognized how Haru looked. Makoto glanced back and forth to the two people with him.

The woman of the Tachibana household smiled at Haru. “Thank you for messaging me about this, Haru-kun.” He simply nodded. _“Haru brought his phone today?”_ Makoto thought. The other teen answered with a look that said, _“I’m learning my lesson on not to forget it anymore.”_  The sick teen just laughed weakly at the Haru’s serious expression.

“You should be resting now, Makoto,” his mother held him by the hand. The three of them went up to Makoto’s room as they helped him settle. As the two more healthy individuals went on preparing some things, he unconsciously drifted to sleep with the blurred out words softly tuning out.

 

Little by little, Makoto cracked his eyes open upon hearing voices disturbing his sleep. “No, I’ll take care of him!” The high-pitched voice of his sister seemed to demand so much from another. His room glared on his eyes as it were left to look like a squint. “But I also want to take care of big brother!” He could almost hear a pout in that statement.

“Now, now, you two. All of us wants your brother to get well soon so why don’t you take turns?” A cold, damp towel was placed on his forehead by the Tachibana patriarch.

“Mm.. work..” He looked up to the built figure of his father, who was suddenly pushed back a bit by a duo’s overenthusiasm. “Big brother, you’re awake!” Makoto let out a groan when a heavy impact jumped over his stomach. Instead of getting irritated, he patted both heads which were beaming down at him.

“..’re you done with homework?”

The twins looked at each other before saying out “I’m done!” “And I finished first!” Ren proudly said. The girl counterpart slightly grouched, “But my work looks better than yours!” The eldest chuckled at the sight. “Now, now. Why don’t you show me what you did?” Straightening up from where they were (and after a slightly crushing weight when they pushed away from Makoto), the two raced back to their room to do as they were told.

“You’re down and sick and you’d still think of your siblings?” Makoto was suddenly aware of the other presence in the room. He smiled at his father. “Dad, don’t you have work to do?” The bespectacled man just waved his hand. “No, I finished everything already for today. I’m pretty much doing well with it recently.” After that, the man fished out a book on Makoto’s bookcase which seemed to spark his interest.

The bed slightly vibrated and small light beside his pillow indicated that his phone had messages. _7 Unread Messages_ , it said.

 

FROM: Haruka N.  
TO: Makoto T.  
MESSAGE: I went back to school. Aunt said that I might catch your sickness if I stick around too much.

 

FROM: Haruka N.  
TO: Makoto T.  
MESSAGE: And she told me to do my homework.

 

FROM: Nagisa H.  
TO: Makoto T.  
MESSAGE: MAKO-CHAAAAN~! yu weren’t at practice 2day (；_；) we miss our mako-chan~~ (´；ω；｀)

 

FROM: Rei R.  
TO: Makoto T.  
MESSAGE: Makoto-senpai, we heard from Haruka-senpai that you were sick today. The best way to get over that soon is to drink lots of fluids and have lots of rest. Please get well soon.

 

FROM: Rin M.  
TO: Makoto T.  
MESSAGE: OI. gou told me that you didn’t attend your club today. get the hell out of that sickness and start taking care of yourself more!

 

FROM: Haruka N.  
TO: Makoto T.  
MESSAGE: Everyone would be coming to visit tomorrow.

 

FROM: Haruka N.  
TO: Makoto T.  
MESSAGE: I promise I’ll do my homework properly so, I hope you get better soon.

 

Makoto can’t help but smile at each message he received from his friends. Even though he was tired from dealing with a sickness that he never got for some years now, he felt light.

After closing his phone the twins excitedly re-entered his room with their mother, bringing rice porridge which was presumably for him to eat. The whole family was now in his room. It was slightly dizzying, but he loved the company.

The twins showed their sets of homework to him, which he weakly remarked on each. Though he’s silently thanking his parents for being there to pacify their wanted attention in which he’s lacking to give in his condition. While he was eating, Ran was convincing her older brother to feed him, which he at least gave a chance to. Eventually, both were trying to feed him the rice porridge and he was just grateful that they didn’t spill anything.

Past 9:00 PM, the parents tried persuading the kids to sleep. “You have school tomorrow, right?” the eldest brother commented. Honestly, he was more worried that they would catch his sickness. Hesitantly being pulled away from Makoto, their father led them back to the twins’ room before going back to Makoto’s room.

“So, Makoto dear, should you be left to rest now?” His mother softly held on to his warm hand. The body temperature seemed to have dropped a bit, much to their relief. The father pulled the blanket up to his shoulder.

“Mm..” Silently, the green-eyed teen muttered as he glanced at his parents, “Sorry for being a bother.”

His father gave a firm pat on his shoulder, seeing a strong yet gentle look on his face. “Makoto, you were never a bother.”

A soft smile graced the woman’s kind features. “You’ve been a good son to us and an excellent brother to the twins,” she gently ran her fingers through her son’s brown hair. “We feel blessed to have you, dear.”

Somehow sensing that he could cry with happiness at any moment, Makoto sluggishly looked away from his mother, only to set his gaze on his father’s own. “It’s okay to act spoiled around us sometimes, Makoto.” The man looked towards his wife with a shy laugh. “After all, you’re our precious child too.”

Makoto’s eyes widened a bit upon hearing his parents’ words. Knowing by feeling made him feel lucky, but listening to those caring words felt more than just a simple blessing. He looked away and hid further beneath the bed covers, trying to hide his embarrassment and overly happy feeling. _Feels like I’m getting confessed to._

“-go..” he mumbled quickly. He didn’t realize that he was suddenly looking straight at his mother’s eyes, who then looked slightly surprised at what he said. Did they get the message?

 _“Don’t go,”_ he meant. Either they’d understand from a messed up slur of words or the opposite would happen. Yet what he requested was something that only a four-year-old child in his situation would say. Thinking that he messed up, Makoto fumbled to take back what he said until a cool hand combed through his bangs and a soft chuckle was heard.

Looking at her husband and back to him, he saw his mother was smiling and extended an arm to hug him. “I’ll stay with you for tonight then.” The man stood up and headed to the door with an “I’ll come back with some futons in a while.” When the door opened, they found the two kids standing in front of it with almost identical deep frowns.

“No fair!” the girl exclaimed. “I wanted to hug big brother too!” she ran up to the bed and gave another jump towards Makoto, which resulted to another groan.

Ren looked up to their father. “Ran said that we forgot to say good night to big brother so we should go back here,” and off he went to cuddle on his brother. “O-oi! Calm down, you’re crushing me!” Makoto flailed a bit. He could hear his parents happily laughing at them.

Getting sick wasn’t so bad after all. Realizing that so many warm-hearted people were there for him, he doesn’t mind caring too much about them too.

 

 

 

“The closest thing to being cared for is to care for someone else.”  
― Carson McCullers, _The Square Root of Wonderful_

**Author's Note:**

> HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO OUR BELOVED MAKOTO! This fanfic is for Cyn, my recipient in the Makoto Birthday Exchange. I tried my best on this one, so I hope you like it! I had fun making this. Oh, and a special mention and thanks to Miaou for arranging the event! Please do check on more works by others for this event on [ http://makotobirthdayexchange.tumblr.com/makobday ]. It'll be worth it!
> 
> The first two parts are in the Free! anime (episode 2) and drama CD (disc 1, track 2). In case anyone gets confused in a certain detail, Makoto pretty much wears his glasses during class when he needs to (AND IT'S CANON. *FLAILS*). Also, it's probably just me but I kind of wanted to see more of the Tachibanas' fluffy relationship. Thus, my mind went wild with this. Before I knew it, I hit 3k+ words (which NEVER happened to me until now). I actually had more ideas but I think I'll leave that for another time.
> 
> Well then, see you next water time!


End file.
